Upstart Crow's David Mitchell: No one knows what Shakespeare was like

COMEDIAN David Mitchell jumped at the chance to play Shakespeare in a bawdy new sitcom, by Blackadder’s Ben Elton.

Harry Enfield as Will’s dad, John Shakespeare; Paula Wilcox as his mum, Mary; and Liza Tarbuck

Is Shakespeare funny? It’s a question that’s been debated for 400 years or so, with purists still finding humour in the Bard’s comedies when done well but many others claiming that his humour hasn’t translated that well down the centuries.

Now, Ben Elton – writer of legendary comedies Blackadder and The Young Ones – has created a sitcom based loosely on William Shakespeare’s life, starring David Mitchell as the Bard.

Shakespeare might have been nerdy and uncharismatic, which is how I play him

David Mitchell

Set in Tudor England, Upstart Crow imagines Shakespeare as an ambitious playwright in the Midlands who’s churning out work but not yet recognised as great.

Like Blackadder, the programme is packed full of silly humour as well as knowing nods to history and contemporary politics, some of them very close to the knuckle.

“No one knows what Shakespeare was personally like, so he might have been nerdy and uncharismatic, which is how I play him,” explains Peep Show star David, 41.

BBC

Upstart Crow, Monday, 10PM,BBC2

One of the jokes in Upstart Crow is that Shakespeare lives in a world that doesn’t yet appreciate his genius – his family make fun of his flowery language and say they can’t understand it.

This Shakespeare is a middle-class bloke trying to better himself, who complains he’s fighting for recognition against a snobbish establishment that’s run by an Oxbridge elite. It’s a sentiment that has many parallels with today, which Elton exploits to the fullest.

And like British sitcom heroes from Captain Mainwaring to Basil Fawlty, Elton’s Shakespeare is a man who has a bit of a chip on his shoulder and would like to be considered posher than he is.

“One of the things that makes Shakespeare appropriate to this sitcom treatment is that he was an aspirant figure,” explains David. “He was middle class – he wanted to better himself, he wanted to do well, he had commercial as well as artistic aspirations.

“Ben Elton told me that Shakespeare bought a coat of arms for his father, which is incredibly nouveau riche – it’s like getting a personalised number plate. He was that kind of middle-class striver.”

The slapstick plots borrow heavily from the Bard’s plays: episode one features a Romeo And Juliet plot twist that goes amusingly wrong, while future instalments will include riffs on Twelfth Night and The Merchant Of Venice, and a Macbeth episode sees Will and his wife Anne Hathaway dealing with an annoying Scottish neighbour.

But Upstart Crow has no expectations that the audience will know the plays. It’s funnier if you do, but it’s not a prerequisite. “Shakespeare is such a major part of British history,” says Liza Tarbuck, 51, who plays Anne. “But whatever your level of history regarding Shakespeare, you’ll get it. It’s fabulous.”

And in an era in which TV comedy tends to be filmed without an audience, Upstart Crow was made for a live audience, and the performers clearly derive energy from that.

“It’s lovely to play scripts that are written for an audience to laugh at, which happens less in TV now because things get filmed with a single camera and they’re more realistic,” explains David. “But we felt that because Shakespeare is a theatrical figure, the more theatrical sitcom form was justified.”

Upstart Crow is likely to be the funniest part of the BBC’s impressive Shakespeare season, marking 400 years since the playwright’s death.

“The thing is, we’re used to Shakespeare being there,” explains David. “He’s arguably the most globally significant creative figure and he’s a random bloke from the Midlands. That’s an amazing story.”